Guys.. this might be my favorite book of this year. The pure joy, sadness, heartbreak, and undying love I hold for this book and it's main character is unmatched. The story follows proudly trans Felix Love. Felix has been out as a trans man since his younger teenage years, and now lives with life proudly alongside his best friend, Ezra. They both attend an art school in New York City and spend practically all their free time together.
Now though, Felix is going through some emotional changes, questioning his identity, questions about his mother left unanswered, and wondering if he will ever truly be loved. And when an anonymous high school bully sets out to display trans-phobic messages about him, Felix is ready to crack.
This story broke some major molds when it comes to LGBTQ writing. Mostly, popular writing of queer characters is writing of white or cisgender (someone who identifies with their gender assigned at birth) characters. This book brought voices and representation to the voiceless and unrepresented. It's incredibly important that these books are presented with similar character styles as other books in it's genre. Felix is a bit of a cocky and some might say irritating character, but other characters with his same type of characteristics, the only difference being that they're white and cisgender, are praised and beloved. My point isn't that just because Felix is a marginalized character means we shouldn't critique this book, because we definitely should, my point is that as reviewers we have to hold these characters to the same standards.
This sort of cocky, full of himself character is what we need. Frankly, I love Felix, I think we'd be besties. And I love this book, so much. Well done.